Biography

William Henry Whitney was an American civil engineer and surveyor. He was born January 3, 1873 to Charles Whitney and Caroline Fuller Stimson. He graduated from Cambridge High School and for a year attended Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard University. In 1861, he learned civil engineering in the office of Stephen P. Fuller and his son J. Franklin Fuller in Boston, Massachusetts.

He enlisted July 14, 1862 and was appointed to 38th Massachusetts Volunteers, eventually attaining Captain. He was honorably discharged for disability on December 20, 1864. He received commission as brevet-major on July 29, 1868 for gallantry in action at Winchester, Virginia, September 19, 1864.

He returned to work at Fuller's firm from 1864-1869. From 1869-1871, he worked in the city engineer's office in Boston. In 1872, he and J. Franklin Fuller founded Fuller & Whitney, with offices at 39 Court Street in Boston. Fuller retired in the late 1870's, but Whitney continued under Fuller & Whitney until officially changing the name to William H. Whitney in 1888. They were largely responsible during the filling in and development of Back Bay. In 1889, the Union Pacific Railroad Company commissioned Whitney to produce plans for cities in the Pacific Northwest serviced by the railroad, including Portland, Seattle, Astoria, and Spokane. Whitney retired in 1904.

In 1870, he helped start the Charles River Baptist Church in Cambridge, and around 1888 helped started the Centre Street Baptist Church in Jamaica Plain. He started serving as a deacon of the Brookline Church in 1890. Whitney was a member of the Cambridge Board of Aldermen in 1879 and a member of the Cambridge Board of Health from 1886-1893. He was chairman of the Cambridge Board of Health in 1896.

Whitney married Emma Sargent Barber on February 18, 1868 in Cambridge. They had four children: Clara Mabel Whitney (born 1871), Chester Whitney (1874-1874), Charles Fuller Whitney (born 1879), and Alice E. Whitney (1880-1880). Whitney died on May 4, 1909 in Cambridge.